De toutes les passions, la seule vraiment respectable me paraît être la gourmandise. - Guy de Maupassant
“Okay, your turn,” they said, and a dozen pair of eyes slid in my direction. “Tell us about yourself.” I have never been comfortable talking about myself, but here I was, the center of attention, albeit for just a ...

Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful!' and sitting in the shade. - Rudyard Kipling, Complete Verse
It was a tangle of brambles and ivy, a wilderness of sticks and dried grass and odd and unknown stalks of something or other sticking heavenward willy-nilly across the landscape. The old wooden gate pushed open to ...

Did you ever sleep in a field of orange-trees in bloom? The air which one inhales deliciously is a quintessence of perfumes. This powerful and sweet smell, as savoury as a sweetmeat, seems to penetrate one, to impregnate, to intoxicate, to induce languor, to bring about a dreamy and somnolent torpor. It is like opium ...

Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real. - Jules Verne
He placed his index finger on the map spread out on the table in front of me and traced a careful line from the northern coast just below where land meets Channel south to La Rochelle. He wanted to be closer to the ...

O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Winter rolls in on a wave of misty white, the fog hanging heavy and cruel over the city. The icy chill penetrates every pore of one’s body and no matter what one does, no matter how many blankets or pairs of socks, ...

An orange on the table, your dress on the rug, and you in my bed, sweet present of the present, cool of night, warmth of my life. – Jacques Prévert
As summer winds down and fades into autumn, as the stone fruits and berries turn mealy and flavorless and then disappear into memory, I begin to crave oranges. It is ...

Nature bestows her own, richest gifts
And, with lavish hands, she works in shifts... - Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, The Four Seasons
The summer pop-up shops are closed, windows dark and gathering dust. The streets are emptier without the tourists, and that emptiness is made all the heavier for the recent days of grey skies and intermittent rain. ...

Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils. - Cyril Connolly
I simply need some comfort today. We all do.
This election has left me drained, emotionally and physically. I’m shaken to my very core, chilled to my bones, and every cliché and platitude in between. Battered and bruised. I mourn for ...

Let them eat cake. – Marie Antoinette
While my own parents were making pies with frozen shells and canned filling or cakes from boxed mixes, my future mother-in-law was feeding her family on homemade treats. Apricot or plum halves pressed into sugary, crumbly pâte sablée or rich quatres-quart made with butter, milk, sugar and flour. Simple ...

The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugarplums. - Anthony Trollope
I’ve had an unexpected windfall of greengage plums. It rained hard for most of the summer, summer not arriving in the Loire Valley until mid-July. It rained hard and long and the chill ...

This blog does not share personal information with third parties nor does it store any information about your visit to this blog other than to analyze and optimize your content and reading experience. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on May, 8th, 2016.